Come Back Home
by idealskeptic
Summary: What happens to Leah Clearwater after the Volturi leave the Pacific Northwest? This is the story of an angry wolf girl transforming into the happy, hopeful girl everyone who knew and cared for her hoped she could be. She goes away for a little while, but she comes back home and makes things right. And she knows she's better for it.


**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Note: **Mirajane Scarlet and I have been giving each other prompts to write fics about. This time, she gave me the Keith Urban song _I Told You So_. This story is what happened…

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**Come Back Home**

I reached underneath my black polyester gown and pulled a tissue out of my pocket. "Here, Mom," I said, passing it to my red-eyed, sobbing mother, "so you don't blow your nose on my sleeve."

"Oh, Leah, give me a break," she sniffled, dabbing at her eyes. "It's not every day that my baby girl graduates from the University of British Columbia."

I had to give her that. After all, even I was a little surprised I was graduating from college. Who would have thought that the angry wolf-girl from La Push would go to college, in another country, and graduate with honors with a degree in First Nations Studies and a minor in First Nations Languages & Linguistics? Not me. But I did it.

I did it in three years, no less. Sure, I let Jasper Hale pay for it as the result of a convoluted bet I'd won – he'd bet me I couldn't go twenty-four hours without losing my temper about something and I did proved him wrong. My prize was that he would pay for me to go to college wherever I wanted to study whatever I wanted. We didn't work out what I'd do if he won but he'd gone to UBC with me, taking mostly the same classes while Alice studied Theatre: Design & Production, and he told me he wasn't sure what he'd have said either but he was glad it worked out the way it did.

"I can't believe you got a degree, Leah," Seth said, giving me a one-armed hug. "So weird. And you didn't phase on any professors when they gave you crappy grades?"

I waved my diploma in his face. "With honors, little brother, read it and weep. Crappy grades and I never so much as waved at each other in passing."

"Still can't believe you went to school with a Cullen and let him pay."

I rolled my eyes and shrugged out of his hug, moving closer to my mother. "Jasper's a Hale," I retorted lamely. "I like the Hales."

"My baby girl, a college graduate," my mom sniffled as she hugged me tightly – Charlie, my stepfather of two years, snickered at the look on my face. "Oh Leah, your father would be so proud of you right now."

"He always was proud of you," Charlie corrected her, offering me a handshake. "Remember that, Leah. He's still proud of you."

Charlie and I had got a lot closer after the birth of Jacob's imprint, I knew it had a lot to do with Bella pulling away from him – the Cullen family, aside from Jasper and Alice, were all living in the Canadian Rockies – but I didn't really care. He needed a daughter to be a father to and I needed a father to be a daughter to. As I thought back of the three years it took to get my degree, I realized that I'd probably talked to Charlie more than I'd talked to Seth.

I shook his hand but pulled him into a hug. "Thanks, Charlie. I really appreciate that."

He nodded, uneasy about shows of affection. "So I hear you're coming home with us?"

"Sure am," I confirmed. "The Pacific Northwest tribes are paying me to write their histories. I'll be home for a while. I'm getting my own place, though, because Seth still lives at home."

Seth knew I was only kidding and punched me in the arm. Lucky for me, he remembered to hold back his strength a little because he was still phasing and, literally, packed a punch. I hadn't phased in three years and it was strange to feel the heat of his hand on me.

The drive home was long and, just as I expected, there was a welcome home party being held in my honor on the rez. I wasn't the first Quileute girl to go to college, but I was the first to be a wolf, hate it, go to college, and come back to do work that actually involved tribe pride, history, and honor. Billy and Old Quil were thrilled.

I hadn't talked to Sam in a long time, but he was the first person I saw at the party. His body, the same temperature as mine, felt just as strange when he hugged me as Seth's had when he hug-punched me. "It's good to have you back, Leah," Sam told me, his voice as deep as ever.

"It's good to be back. How are you? And Emily and little Allison?" Sam and Emily had asked me to be their daughter's godmother but I hadn't been able to do it. I was still learning to live with what they were and I didn't want to complicate things needlessly. They knew that if Allison ever needed me, I'd be there in a heartbeat – that was enough.

"Good," he said, stepping back but keeping a hand on my arm. "We're good. Congratulations on graduating. You look so … happy."

"I am. Happy and shamelessly proud of myself," I admitted, appraising my one-time fiancé and realizing that he didn't look quite as happy as I expected he would. "What about you, Sam? Are you okay? Happy and all that?"

He nodded slowly and smiled a smile that told me he was lying. But he didn't want to talk about it, so I dropped it. For the moment.

I found him again later, long after everyone else had gone home. I deliberately hung around, sensing that I'd find him on the cliffs. They were his safe place and I started finding him there long before either of us had any idea that vampires were real and we'd turn into werewolves one day. "What's going on, Uley?" I asked, folding myself onto the cold, hard ground next to him. I wondered if, now that neither of us were phasing anymore, we could talk easily like we once had.

"You just got home, Clearwater, I'm not going to bother you with my problems," he said evasively.

"Did I just ask you what your problems were?" I pointed out, rolling my eyes at the sky. "Not bothering if I ask, Sam. But you don't have to talk to me, I know things are … awkward with us even now."

He was quiet for a long time, but then he told me something that completely threw me for a loop. "I'm not sure I love Emily like I did when I was phasing."

"Like, what?" I asked when I recovered my voice and my coherent thoughts. "Like you aren't sure you're still imprinted on her? Is that what you mean?"

Sam nodded but didn't say anything.

"Is that even freakin' possible?" I demanded. "Have you talked to Old Quil or Billy? Has anybody else stopped phasing and had the same thing happen?"

"No, I haven't talked to anyone. What am I going to say?" He threw a rock over the cliffs and I lost sight of it long before it even came close to the water. "Do I ask if imprinting ends because I haven't phased in a few years? That's an awkward conversation I don't want to have with any of the elders. Only Paul's totally stopped phasing and he seems more in love with Rachel than he did before. But he hasn't been out as long as I have. They don't have kids, maybe that makes a difference.

"It's not that I don't love her, I do. I just … don't feel the same thing for her, the same pull, as I did before I went back to being ordinary. I don't know what to do, Leah," he admitted in a whisper.

"I hope you're not looking for wise words of wisdom from me," I blurted out, still more than a little shocked by his admission, "because I haven't got any. But you can talk to me, talk out whatever. I'm here, Sam."

We stayed on the cliffs for a couple hours, just talking like we used to do. I don't know if he left any less confused than he had been when I got there, but he did go home to Emily and Allison. I stayed a little while longer and then walked back to my childhood home. I was still in the yard when I realized that I could hear my brother snoring inside – it was _so _good to be home.

For just a moment, I thought about driving into Forks, where my mom had moved in with Charlie, and sleeping there but then I shook my head and went inside. A single punch to Seth's shoulder made him turn over and quiet down.

The next day I started settling back into life as a Quileute girl. I wasn't the Leah Clearwater who'd left, but it was still an adjustment. To distract myself from any old ghosts that threatened to haunt me, I dove right into my work. It only made sense to start my history of native people in the Pacific Northwest with my own tribe so I got dressed and made a beeline for Old Quil.

Over the next few days, I spent hours and hours with Old Quil. We developed quite a rapport and, by the end of his telling of Quileute history, I apologized for disrespecting him so much and so often when I was part of the pack. He forgave me in an instant, telling me that he wouldn't have wished what I went through on his daughter or granddaughter. I got him his blood pressure medication, watched him take it as I promised his daughter I would, and left with my notes and videos. Then, acting on impulse, I went back inside and hugged him.

"What's that for, Leah?" he said, his gravelly voice not hiding his surprise as he hugged me back.

"So I'm turning into an old softie," I said, trying to sound as much like my old, angry self as possible. "Deal with it."

Old Quil laughed and let me go. "It's good to have you back, Leah."

I heard that a lot over the next few weeks. Apparently I'd been missed, and it hardly even bothered me that they all looked at me like I'd lost my mind when I was in a good mood. They'd get used to that soon enough.

Sam and I met on the cliffs every few days. We never planned it, we just ended up there. I liked sitting and talking to him. We didn't always talk about Emily or werewolves and vampires or Allison, sometimes we talked about movies and books and the weather. It was about a month after I got back that I had my epiphany.

Easy conversations were temporarily suspended.

"Sam," I said slowly, wondering if the thing that had occurred to me could possibly be true, "you aren't wondering if you're in love with me again, are you? You know, since neither of us phase anymore? Is that why you doubt your feelings for Emily?"

His deep brown eyes met mine searchingly. Exhaling deeply, he turned on the ground and faced me completely. "Maybe. Do you think that could be it?"

I nodded, chewing my lip. "Maybe. Do you?"

"I can't believe the whole genetic thing is still screwing us," he muttered angrily.

"Don't love me, Sam," I said quickly and honestly. "Don't try to love me because you think you should or you feel like you owe it to me. Love Emily because I know you do. She's your wife and Allison is your daughter. The best thing you can ever do for me is to be good for them."

"What about you?" he asked quietly. "Do you think you can find love now?"

I laughed loudly, relieved that I'd finally figured out why Sam was acting so strange. "Yes, Sam, yes," I assured him. "I can find love. I dated people at school. I even loved some them."

"Oh yeah?" he said, and I could see he was just as relieved as I was. "Tell me about them? It's all past tense now?"

Against my better judgment, I blushed. Sam laughed and I didn't care. "Some are past tense," I admitted, suddenly interested in my purple painted toenails. "There's one that might not be so past tense. He's Cree. His name is Mingan, which means Gray Wolf so he goes by Gray around the palefaces. He's coming here next week."

I leaned in to him when he hugged me. "That's great, Leah," he said enthusiastically. "Does your mom know he's coming?"

I nodded and rolled my shoulders. "Yeah, she knows. She met him at my graduation and invited him. He would've come back with us but there was a Cree ceremony he needed to be there for. She was so embarrassing!"

"Moms are like that," he pointed out. "How'd you meet him? And when he's here, do we call him Mingan or Gray?"

"Mingan, please. And how I met him is going to make you laugh; he was in some of my classes but couldn't work up the nerve to ask me out so, guess what he did." Sam was never going to guess, so I just told him. "He noticed that Jasper studied with me a lot so, apparently deciding my vampire friend was more approachable than me, he asked Jasper about me."

"You're kidding. You were too unapproachable but Jasper Hale wasn't? Leah, that's bad."

I punched him in the shoulder. "You don't think I know that? Anyhow, Mingan and I have been dating for about a year. I went to his rez over spring break and met his family, now he's coming to La Push. What do you think? Am I in love?"

Sam shook his head and met my gaze. "Sounds like you could be, but I reserve judgment until I meet Mingan. If he doesn't seem right for you, I get to kick his ass. You know that, right?"

I laughed and pushed him again. "I know, Sam. I'm counting on it. But, on the other hand, if he's passed muster with our friendly empathetic vampire, shouldn't he be good with you?"

"Hell no, Clearwater!" he yelped loudly. "I don't trust any vampire about anything. I didn't lose that when I quit phasing. I'll make my own judgments, thank you very much."

"Aw, there's the Sam Uley I know and love," I said sweetly. "I was wondering where you went."

Sam shook his head, running his fingers through his close cropped hair. "I get lost sometimes, but I'm still here. Just got to be reminded of it sometimes."

We watched the sun rise that day. Sharing a laugh about the lack of sparkly vampires in our lives these days, even though I still talked to Jasper, Sam headed home to his family and I went to get a few hours sleep before I had to drive to the Makah reservation to start my research there.

Mingan came to Forks four days later. He was three days early. When I pointed that out to him, he said he missed me too much to stay away any longer. Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

In answer, I did something that Leah Clearwater made it a point to never do.

I cried.

Bawled my eyes out for twenty minutes straight. It was only when I realized Mingan might be taking tears the wrong way, given the panicked look on his face that I pulled myself together and said yes, a thousand times yes.

Just when the tears were drying on my cheeks, he made it start all over again. He told me that, as long as we could visit his tribe a couple times a year, he wanted us to live with my tribe because he could tell how much it meant to me.

My mom cried with me that time.

But we got over it and I introduced Mingan to the rest of the Quileutes, paying special attention to my pack brothers. They behaved, even the ones who still phased, and for that I was grateful.

Sam pulled me aside as the impromptu barbecue and bonfire carried on and hugged me tightly. "You're happy, Leah," he whispered in my ear. "He makes you happy. I like that. I like him."

I couldn't help but grin against his chest, hugging him just as tightly. "He does, Sam. Thank you. But are you okay?"

He let go of me and nodded, a smile on his own face. "I am. I think I was just worried that what happened between us ruined your life. Maybe I was feeling all the guilt I couldn't feel while I phased, even though I felt a hell of a lot of guilt then."

"It did ruin my life," I admitted, "but only for a while. I love my life now. You love your life, right?"

"Emily and Allison are my world," he declared, and I could see how true his words were in his eyes. "Yeah, Leah, I love my life."

I let him go back to his wife and daughter after making sure of that, but I watched them closely. He was happy. Any fool could see that.

Mingan and I got married just two weeks later on my rez.

We were having another ceremony for Mingan's Cree family later, so it was just my people there. Well, my people plus Jasper and Alice – it was a classically dry, but slightly overcast Olympic Peninsula evening. The sappy, girly-girl that had been hidden deep inside me for so long couldn't not have the reason I knew Mingan there, so I got permission from Quil, the most senior one who still phased, and the rest of the Council to invite them.

I think my mom would have killed anybody who denied me something on my wedding day.

My mom stood beside me and Mingan had Seth stand with him. Charlie, my stepfather and my father's best friend, got choked up when he walked me down the aisle on top of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

I had never been so happy.

We were going to the Cree rez for the ceremony there before we went on a honeymoon – a week on Esme Cullen's private island … I was starting to like her almost as much as I liked Jasper – so we said goodbye to my people the morning after the wedding.

As I look over my family, and they were all my family, I realized that the best decision I'd ever made was to come back home.

**The End**


End file.
